Death Amongst the Bookshelves
Jul. 3rd, 2014 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselJan 2014
Alexandria - Lindsey Davis - Arrow, 2010
* * *
Briefly, since I no longer have the book - Falco and Helena are on their travels again, this time to the city of Alexandria to visit Falco's Uncle Fulvius and his partner. They become suspects in the death of Theon, a scholar working in the fabled library. But who among the posse of bureaucrats and heads of department could have wanted him dead?
As always with Davis, the research into ancient Alexandria is superb and the reconstruction of the library and its organisation are highly convincing. Helena is of course present and feisty as ever, and the unwanted appearance of Falco's father Didius and an old friend adds to the fun. However, as is so often the case with the later Falco books, the resolution of the murder mystery is disappointing, with too many side-plots that seem to be there mainly to incorporate interesting tidbits of information from Davis' researches. And the primary theme - bureaucracy and its corruption - makes for a distinct lack of action.
Alexandria - Lindsey Davis - Arrow, 2010
* * *
Briefly, since I no longer have the book - Falco and Helena are on their travels again, this time to the city of Alexandria to visit Falco's Uncle Fulvius and his partner. They become suspects in the death of Theon, a scholar working in the fabled library. But who among the posse of bureaucrats and heads of department could have wanted him dead?
As always with Davis, the research into ancient Alexandria is superb and the reconstruction of the library and its organisation are highly convincing. Helena is of course present and feisty as ever, and the unwanted appearance of Falco's father Didius and an old friend adds to the fun. However, as is so often the case with the later Falco books, the resolution of the murder mystery is disappointing, with too many side-plots that seem to be there mainly to incorporate interesting tidbits of information from Davis' researches. And the primary theme - bureaucracy and its corruption - makes for a distinct lack of action.